What TALK TO ME Is Really About

on the surface talk to me isn't too unique in the landscape of horror movies teens irresponsibly commune with the dead disastrous results follow but the movie gets something right which makes it particularly effective its dedication to realism in every aspect outside the supernatural element as I watched talk to me I couldn't help but compare it to The Exorcist not because both involve possession but because both operate on a similar philosophy if the world feels real and characters act in a believable way the horrors will somehow also feel real in The Exorcist this was accomplished by having the character go through a lengthy Journey before accepting that in exorcism is the right solution for her daughter's plight she exhausts every other Avenue first doctors brain scans psychiatrists Etc and apparently the co-directors who are brothers were influenced by the extra assist in their interview with Roger ebert.com they were asked about their influences and Danny Filippo said this it's so obvious but the Exorcist is such a powerful film and grounded in such reality that everything has such weight to it the way they react to each situation is credible I bought those characters I love realism and horror the realism in talk to me can be felt in its opening moments first it uses a tracking shot to follow a character in a single unbroken take the setting is a chaotic house party so there's a lot of activity on screen which makes this especially impressive but it also adds to that sense of realism just like The Shining Strack and shots this one gives the sense that you're in a real space not a set and the lack of cuts means one less illusion you have to buy into in order to accept the story you're seeing it all play out naturally next is one of my favorite things about the movie horror movie movies too often treat doors like impenetrable force fields if you're in a creaky old house and a bad guy is chasing you suddenly that creaky old house becomes an inescapable Fortress or characters don't even attempt to break down an old wooden door but in the opening of talk to me when Kohl's knocks on the door go unanswered and he's worried about his brother on the other side of it he does what anyone would do in that situation tackles his way through it it also avoids clunky Exposition there's never a have you seen this new viral video going around oh yeah it's crazy these kids are getting possessed by a hand or something instead we watch the characters interact with that viral video as though it's already been around it might take a few extra minutes for us to fully comprehend what we're seeing but that's how it would be if this were the real world and you were a fly on the wall it would be as though you were dropped into a conversation part way through and there wouldn't be anyone there to play catch-up and tell you what you miss one Trope of horror is that the plot often depends on characters making really bad decisions talk to me is no exception but rather than plot induced stupidity those decisions come from a more complicated place and the movie explores why the characters would make such decisions which ties into its core themes of grief and or need for Connection in that opening scene when Cole attempts to escort his brother Duckett out of the house he's confronted by a crowd of bystanders phones in hand each one eager to capture a moment that might Garner views clicks likes upvotes or whatever the currency of attention is these days this highlights one of the worst aspects of phone culture the ease with which we can record people's most vulnerable moments and the disturbing reality that the urge to capture can sometimes outweigh the urge to help shortly after that scene we witness another familiar and frustrating aspect to phone culture Jade forgets to pick up her brother because she had him on mute and when Mia tries talking to her Jade is too busy paying attention to her phone it's the two-year anniversary of Mia's mother's passing Mia needs her friend's support but to get it she first has to break past the phone barrier and demand some face-to-face attention these moments being placed early on accomplishes a couple of things first they further contribute to the sense of realism by placing the movie in a context that feels true today we often compete with people's phones for their attention and in talk to me we see it with Jade a few minutes later when they arrive at the party we see it again Mia tries to make small talk with someone on their phone she compliments the big house and he without even glancing up responds with a distracted yeah the second thing this accomplishes is that it primes us to think about this theme as the movie progresses because it's one of the first things it shows us so for the rest of the movie we might wear a phone culture lens to see what talk to me has to say about it but the movie actually digs a little deeper than phone culture if it focused only on phones and social media it might come off as more of a satire but I don't actually think it comments too much on social media itself instead it's just presented as a part of today's culture the movie speaks to a deeper issue and might illuminate how our current culture contributes to it that issue is our need for connection among these early scenes there's also a moment where Mia's father checks in on her she washes the dishes while he's just a quiet blur in the background we don't even see his face until later in the movie it's an audio visual representation of their relationship she's cut him off drowned him out like the sound of the kitchen faucet he struggles to speak over all because she can sense he hasn't been entirely truthful with her over the death of her mother he told her that she took her own life she doesn't completely believe him and she is correct that he's holding something back because later he reveals that she left a note and he's never shared it with her Mia had a strong connection with her mother and for two years now it's been severed further this loss has driven a wedge between Mia and her father severing another connection now she's lost not only her mother but also the one person who can truly share in her grief and grief has a powerful gravity which can easily become an isolating experience so if you want to explore our need for connection a character subject to that gravitational pull would be the perfect protagonist as I said earlier I don't see talk to me as a satire commenting too much on social media or phone culture but what it does observe is that this culture adds barriers to forming healthy connections with people by turning us into observers when someone is at their most vulnerable or by forcing us to compete with screens for our friends attention with that added friction it's even more difficult for Mia to escape the loneliness of grief and loss it's no surprise then that when given the opportunity to shine in front of a group to receive their approval and praise to feel connected with them Mia takes it at that party she's the first one to volunteer to hold the embalmed hand and say talk to me it's tempting when you unravel the meaning of a film to ascribe metaphors especially in horror where there's often a particular Supernatural element you wonder what's the meaning behind it what in the real world is it standing in for the most obvious analog to the embalmed hand would be drugs the characters are drawn to it in part due to peer pressure everyone else is doing it Mia is drawn to to it as an answer to loneliness and pain and when they partake in its effects the result is an intense High there's even a montage sequence as the characters take turns with it which Harkens back to drug montages for more light-hearted movies though this would be a drug whose potential risks are taken to the extreme like any drug you can overdose don't let the dead in for more than 90 seconds or they'll want to stick around and if you die while connected it's much worse than your average overdose you might suffer Eternal consequences in the afterlife too but I wouldn't say the hand is specifically a metaphor for drugs I think that's a little too limiting instead I'd say it represents exactly what it is a dangerous and artificial answer to a very real question what do we do with our loneliness what do we do with our yearning for a connection you can almost hear that yearning in the movie's title talk to me just add the word please in front of it and the meaning is clear and of course the act of taking someone's hand is an act of connection ingrained in human behavior for who knows how long the ritual culminates in the ultimate connection with an invitation I let you in that's when the dead take control of your body it's hard to imagine a connection deeper than that to literally invite the spirit of a person into your body drugs and the temporary high that can produce are one answer to that yearning another is relationships with Anonymous people online which can sometimes be the basis for something real but at other times you don't really know who is on the other end just like the spirits and talk to me who we learn are capable of impersonating others in fact although it's never explicitly confirmed many believe and I agree with this reading that Mia was never really talking to her mother instead it was a deceitful Spirit using her mother's face to manipulate Mia into giving them a soul because if they can kill Riley while he's infected with the spirit he'll be theirs forever it's like a demonic form of catfishing only instead of manipulating someone into sending money or feeling ashamed the goal here is child sacrifice what does the hand represent it's the Escape From Pain which comes from a lack of human connection an escape which despite the enormous danger it represents we are drawn to and strangely maybe the danger is part of what draws Us in maybe the thrill of danger is more enticing than the nothingness and numbness of being alone so it's not that the hand equals drugs but both are enticing due to a similar impulse in their interview with days digital Danny commented today's generation is sadder and social media plays a part in young people's sadness depression rates are up I wanted to make a film that felt like it captured today's youth there's also a funny moment in the interview where Dany avoids commenting too much on the movie subtext I know what the hand means to me personally says Danny but I like that people are able to interpret it however they want and then Michael just straight up says it there's a bunch in there connection is one real connections and forced connection then Danny gives him a hard time Michael says that in every interview now it was meant to be a secret and he says it's so dumbly as well it's about Connections shame on you what the hand offers is one of those forced connections where one party in this case the dead has ulterior motives but Mia is blind to those motives because grief is a powerful force it takes a severe lapse in judgment to commune with the dead trusting the embalmed hand and trusting that the rules will protect you from it but it is believable that some teens would make that lapse in judgment just combine their desperation for attention pleasing the crowd a thrill or looking for a connection and combine that with a still developing prefrontal cortex but it'll take more than that to break the rules to disregard the time limit while Riley a child under the age of 15 takes his turn putting a child in danger like that would take something more what could make someone do that grief Mia is blinded to the spirit's devious motives because she so wants to believe that her mother while dead is still around in some sense so when a spirit speaks through Riley as though it's her mother Mia doesn't let them end the ritual and the malevolent Force sticks around driving Riley to self-harm in the brink of death Mia's grief makes her desperate for a connection it makes her vulnerable so the spirit which wears her mother's face takes advantage by telling her exactly what she wants to hear that her father is lying that Mia's mother would never leave her like that she would never take her own life these lies connect Mia to the spirit she begins to trust it more than her family and friends for example Mia and her friends look to Cole who miraculously survived his brother's attack for guidance he assures them that Riley's body should reject the spirit over time the spirit will weaken and eventually leave him but the spirit haunting Mia tells her that isn't true Riley is with them now and he is suffering when she tries to reach Riley using the hand she instead finds a little girl she may be the same Spirit who's been impersonating her mother now just wearing a different face or could be another spirit that just shares the common cause either way the little girl floods Mia with images of Torment showing her that Riley is supposedly in a constant state of torture and will remain there forever unless Mia intervenes by killing him then Mia's mother can take care of him in the afterlife Mia believes the spirit over Cole and her friends and by this point she believes the spirit over her father who finally confesses he admits that he has kept something from Mia about her mother the note she left behind proving that she did in fact take her own life but even seeing the note Mia doesn't believe it as the movie progresses Mia becomes more and more isolated from her friends and family while her relationship with the spirit supersedes them actually it starts to fit the catfishing metaphor quite well some of the more manipulative types will prey on someone vulnerable by showing more empathy and support than anyone else in the target's life in order to build trust which this Spirit does by telling Mia what she wants to hear once trust is built they will sometimes isolate the Target by putting distance between them and their family creating seeds of doubt about the intentions of others like telling Mia that her father is a liar and often they create a sense of urgency to keep the target engaged so there's no risk of them pulling away or questioning the relationship for example Riley will be damned for eternity unless you kill him right away and the spirit knows Mia well enough to know just how to manipulate her it can pluck the dying kangaroo from her memories to remind her of the regret of letting another creature suffer to remind her that Riley will suffer unless she acts now this is her chance to actually do the right thing we all yearn for connection and as this movie highlights maybe that's true now more than ever as phones and social media degrade real face-to-face contact maybe today with that added friction toward real connection it doesn't take much to push someone into isolation grief is a deeply personal experience but quite often it's helpful to find Solace with others through emotional support validation or practical support like Jade's family taking Mia in in her grief there are a few cautionary tales some for her and some for those around her like her dad he kept her mother's note from Mia because he thought it would be too difficult for her but all that did was create a rift between them without which maybe total disaster could have been averted maybe she wouldn't have ended up stabbing him through the neck with a pair of scissors he also made it nearly impossible for Mia to feel closure for her loss because the door to question whether or not her mother really took her own life was kept open all this time her grief and the vulnerability that comes with it continued allowing her to be manipulated by the malevolent Spirit the lesson if you think you're protecting someone by hiding the truth you may not be you might just be avoiding a difficult conversation and there may be consequences to that talk to me explores a range of consequences that come from choosing me as this path over the path of healing it can lead to Total isolation and if things like drug use are involved it can lead to worse turning someone into a danger to themselves or others there's the heart-wrenching moment when Jade's mother allows Mia to see Riley in the hospital before getting a call from her daughter warning that Mia is dangerous and that she can't be left alone with Riley talk to me uses realism to explore our need for a connection and how it might be Amplified in the context of today's culture it uses me as grief to push that loneliness even further and it uses horror to exaggerate the consequences of isolation and the desperation it creates as a result we feel those consequences more intensely than we would otherwise although parents aren't the main characters of this movie it's interesting to view it from their perspective one of the challenges of being a parent especially when children reach the age where they're often on their own is that you have no idea what they're up to and in this movie the chasm between the parents understanding of what kids these days are up to and what they're actually up to couldn't be wider Jade's mother might worry about unprotected sex drugs or alcohol but I doubt communing with the dead is anywhere on her list talk to me gives the impression that parents and the younger generation are in completely different worlds it wouldn't surprise me if moms and dads walk out of this movie and the first thing they do is download Tick Tock to try and figure out what the hell their kids are up to whether it's planking coin boys or demonic possession in a way this movie plays into a lot of the traditional fears around leaving kids to their own devices but updates them for modern times like the corrupting influence of peer pressure Riley is a good kid it's no mistake that our first introduction to him is a scene where he says no to a cigarette he's been instilled with certain values and does his best to stand by them but when he watches a room of older kids indulging in the hand when he watches Mia someone he looks up to doing it he has to try it's not a malicious peer pressure in fact many in the room aren't sure it's a good idea for a young kid to get involved but when you go one way and the Crowd Goes another there's automatically a degree of pressure and today the crowd isn't just the people in the room with you it's everyone you see on social media there are so many more people to be influenced by For Better or Worse in that same interview with Roger ebert.com they commented on many of the themes in this movie including this one Michael said there are positives and negatives to social media to that craving for attention that we all have you also see kids using social media as a mechanism for disconnection when horrible things happen you pull out your phone and start recording as a way to associate yourself from what's happening in front of you and Danny added we've also seen the rise and fall of all these dangerous Trends ones that people lose their lives over which is what happens to Mia she takes Riley to the side of a road and readies herself to push him into oncoming traffic the Specter of her mother assures her I'm proud of you it's the right thing to do we'll have him forever perhaps that last one is a step too far and it's enough to break Mia's spell because at that point she lets go she maybe realizes that she's been manipulated what happens next is Up For Debate some believe that Mia jumps in front of a car to take her own life others believe Jade pushes her to save her brother both are tragic but the latter has an element of irony because it would mean Mia changed her mind and Riley is safe but Jade has no idea and can't take that chance so she's forced to kill her friend unaware her she could have let her live we do get a view of what happens from inside a car but it's in the distance and it's blurry maybe something that'll be easier to parse going frame by frame once this movie is available at home but to me at least it does look like Jade pushes her in either case Mia gets hit by a car and finds herself in a sort of limbo a void where she is lost until others complete the ritual and now she is one of those lost souls who answers the call talk to me it's a tragic ending which solidifies some of those cautionary tales in our yearning for connection and in our most vulnerable States be it grief or other difficult situations we need to find a healthy way out we need to find a way to make real personal connections and we have to avoid the temptation to take dangerous shortcuts otherwise we might sink deeper into ourselves becoming more isolated and ultimately becoming lost souls talk to me is a horror movie that uses a somewhat familiar premise but it gets attention with a clever twist replacing Ouija boards and other tired methods of reaching the Dead with something new something more visceral a hand that you can reach out and touch and once the movie has your attention it does two things which elevate it above your average horror it uses realism so the scares land with more impact and it uses the genre to say something to explore some dark and relevant corners of our world it's a fantastic debut for a couple of content creators and proof that YouTubers can make movies it kind of gets me thinking anyway I think we can wrap it up there if you like horror make sure to check out my horror playlist where I've got a bunch of other horror themed videos and trust me with Halloween just around the corner there's more on the way if you enjoyed this video make sure to like subscribe and hit the Bell icon for more with that thank you for watching and see you on the next one take

Channel: OneTake

Views: 152,661

Keywords: Talk to me, talk to me analysis, talk to me ending explained, talk to me video essay, horror, horror video essay, talk to me review

Id: bqlkxvSqH-E

Length: 23min 19sec (1399 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 26 2023